Box Score by Kevin Buczek
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C.-Barton College junior Dominique Byrd registered his second double-double of the season in a 93-89 non-conference road loss at Elizabeth City State University on Tuesday night at the RL Vaughan Center.
The Vikings outscored the Bulldogs 64-47 in the second half including a 35-25 run over the final eight-plus minutes to rally from a 13-point halftime deficit. ECSU moved over .500 on the season at 6-5 while BC dipped under .500 at 4-5.
Freshman Danny Shand and junior Jake Veasley led four Barton scorers in double digits with 23 and 22 points, respectively. Byrd bucketed 13 points and sophomore Kendall Patterson contributed 10 points.
Byrd completed his double-double with a game-high 12 rebounds and made three blocks.
After five early lead changes, Barton score nine consecutive points to take the lead for the final 12 minutes of the first half. The outburst that included a go-ahead layup by Veasley sparked a 27-11 run to close the half by the visitors.
Veasley added another layup in the final seconds to cap the period and give the Bulldogs a 42-29 advantage at the midway break. Veasley led all players into the locker room with 11 points.
Barton dominated the backboards in the first half, 33-20, including 16 on the offensive end that led to 12 more shot attempts. The Bulldogs were slightly more accurate from the floor at 37.8% (17-45) compared to 33.3% (11-33) by the Vikings to build the 13-point cushion.
Patterson extended the Royal Blue and White advantage to 16 points early in the second half as his 3-pointer at the 18:17 mark moved the score to 47-31. BC maintained a double-digit lead for most of the next five minutes and led 54-44 after a senior Ryan Canoy layup with just over 13 minutes left.
ECSU quickly pulled to within four with a 10-4 surge that featured a three-pointer and a layup by both Elon Edwards and Miykael Faulcon to trail 58-54.
A few minutes later, DeCarlos Anderson started the game-ending 35-25 run with a 3-pointer that pulled the Vikings within one possession at 64-61. Darrell Ward made a layup that tied the score at 66-all with 6:10 to go but Shand nailed a jumper to give BC its last lead at 68-66.
Elizabeth City State scored on two more layups on its next two possessions to take its first lead since the 12:18 mark of the first half. James Theus tied the score for a fourth and final time before Edwards put the Vikings ahead for the final five minutes with a fast break finish.
A pair of treys by Glenn Patterson and Anderson helped push the hosts' advantage to eight points at 80-72. Barton pulled within two possessions seven times over the final two minutes but ECSU answered by scoring points each of the first six times to thwart the Bulldogs comeback chances until time expired.
Faulcon led the victors with a game-high 26 points including four made 3-pointesr. Ward and Edwards both tallied 19 points with Ward adding 10 rebounds for a double-double and Edwards notching five assists and three steals.
The Vikings found a hot hand after the intermission shooting 61.3% (19-31) in the second half to finish at 46.9%. Barton tried to keep pace firing at 55.6% (15-27) for the half and 44.4% for the contest.
ECSU were outrebounded 45-35 but did much better on the glass in the second half with a slight 15-12 edge over the final 20 minutes including holding BC to just five offensive boards compared to the 16 allowed in the first half. The Vikings also did a better job protecting the ball committing just three mistakes in the second half after turning it over eight times in the first period.
Shand scored 14 of his team-high 23 points in the second half while dishing out a game-high six assists.
Barton will conclude play before the holiday break with two home games next week. The Bulldogs will try and avenge a couple road losses when they host Fayetteville State University on Thursday (Dec. 18) and ECSU on Saturday (Dec. 20). Both contested are slated to tip-off at 7 p.m.
